The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus of the type in which ink is supplied from a detachably attached, ink container to a recording head, and ink drops are ejected from the recording head onto a recording medium to record information thereon, and an ink cartridge adaptable for the ink jet recording apparatus.
In the ink cartridge used for the recording apparatus in which ink contained in the ink cartridge attached to the carriage is supplied from the ink supply section to the ink jet recording head, the atmosphere communicating part and the ink supply section are both sealed with sealing members, whereby a required degassed rate is guaranteed before the ink cartridge is used (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-207349). In use, the sealing member applied to the atmosphere communicating part is opened with a pin or the like, and the ink supply section is connected to the recording head by use of a joint pin or the like.
With the downsizing tendency of the computer, the following market need emerges: the ink jet recording apparatus is thinned in size, and the recording apparatus and other devices, e.g., a scanner and a computer, are stacked one on another in use.
To satisfy such a need, it is desirable that the ink cartridge may be loaded into the recording apparatus from the front side, viz., it may be front-loaded into the recording apparatus.
In front-loading the ink cartridge, the ink cartridge may be attached to and detached from the recording apparatus by turning the ink cartridge 90° and horizontally moving the ink supply ports of the cartridge. In this case, the cartridge is put in the upright standing state and hence, the attaching/detaching operation is instable. Additionally, the surface of the ink cartridge which is opposed to the ink supply ports, viz., the atmosphere opening formed in the lid, is exposed to the ink contained. In this condition, ink leakage will probably occur when ambient temperature varies.
To cope with this, there is proposed an ink cartridge. In the cartridge, an ink supply port is formed in the side wall of the ink container, and the cartridge is attached to and detached from the recording apparatus by horizontally moving the cartridge, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-68770.
In the proposed cartridge, the ink flow passage interconnecting the ink container and the recording head is long, so that the area or volume of the carriage is large.